HOM.04

From Habele Institute

Religious Conquest, 1638-1670, is the fourth volume of the History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents (HOM), compiled and edited by Rodrique Levesque.

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The History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents, Volume 4, Religious Conquest

The History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents was complied, edited and published by Rod Levesque from 1992 to 2002. Copyrights were obtained by the Habele Outer Island Education Fund, a US nonprofit, in 2022, which digitized the content to facilitate noncommercial access to, and use of, the twenty-volume series. The PDF file for HOM.04 is roughly 65MB.

Levesque's Summary

Volume 4 contains 82 chapters totalling 123 documents covering all the voyages made in the Pacific during this period by Spanish galleons, and 2 ex¬editions made by Dutch ships (Quast, Vries). For the first time ever, there is a complete set of documents from the archives about the conquest of the Mariana Islands and the establishment of a Spanish colony and Jesuit mission there. Every document appears in its proper chronological sequence.

—List of the 26 illustrations, including maps of Oceania and Micronesia; list of abbreviations.

—A foreword recapitulating the major events of the period. The first event was the shipwreck of the galleon Concepcion at Saipan, which stranded a few survivors for 30 years until the Spanish arrived to found a settlement. The treasure of this galleon was salvaged only in 1987-88.

—In 1662, a Jesuit mission band was on its way to Manila when some priests were impressed by the nakedness of the Guam natives. Father Sanvitores, the Apostle of the Marianas, decided to seek permission to establish a mission there.

—In 1668, he came back with 6 other missionaries and 30 colonists (mostly Filipinos), and 3 muskets for self-defence. Two of the Filipinos had lived in the Islands for 20 years and taught the Chamorro language to the missionaries on the way over, so well, in fact, that a grammar and catechism had already been written in that language before their arrival at Guam. This document is reproduced in full in Appendix A.

—The site of the first Spanish settlement in Guam was at Agafia on land given by Chief Kipuha. His boat shed was transformed into the first temporary church.

—The first 2 years of the Mariana Mission were successful, in spite of anti-Christian rumors spread by a Chinese resident of Guam who had deserted 20 years earlier from a champan that had been driven from the Molucca Passage by a storm.

—Many documents refer to population statistics and the record is set straight; the initial estimates were too high, and mostly due to an error in arithmetic.

—The paper discovery of the Caroline Islands in 1664 is due to another Jesuit serving in Celebes. Father Miedes interviewd some Carolinian drifters from Ifaluk Atoll. It turns out that the people of the Central Carolines knew the whole area well and had even visited Melanesia. Strange as it may seem, however, at that time, they did not yet know about the Marianas.

—In 1660, another Spanish galleon, the Victoria, was shipwrecked in Micronesia, this time in Palau (event reported here for the first time). One native who witnessed this disaster drifted by canoe to the Philippines in 1668 and reported the event. The Victoria had, like the Chinese champan, been on the way from Manila to Temate, when she was driven from the Molucca Passage to Palau.

—The period ends on a sour note. Father Medina was the first missionary to be killed, in Saipan in 1670.

—A detailed list of 72 Jesuit missionaries who served in the Marianas during the 101 years that the Mission lasted is given in Appendix B. This list is the result of years of research on this subject.

Table of Contents

1638A The shipwreck of the galleon Concepción in 1638

1638B Jesuit annual report for 1637-38

1638C Letter from the Treasurer at Manila to the King, dated, 31 August 1638

1638D Royal decrees regarding the galleon trade, dated Madrid 8 December 1638

1639A Jesuit annual report for 1638-39

1639B Voyage of discovery east of Japan, by Mathys Quast

1640A Jesuit annual report for 1639-40

1640B The galleon trade in the 1640s

1642A Ordinances for good government, by Governor Corcuera

1643A Father Bobadilla’s Relation

1643B Letter from Fr. Bobadilla to the Fr. General, dated Manila, 6 August 1643

1643C The voyage of 1643, narrated by Fr. Murillo Velarde

1643D Account of the 1643 voyage by Br. Alonso Perez

1644A Galleons of 1643 and 1644

1645A The unsuccessful Dutch plan to capture the Manila galleon near the Ladrones

1647A Galleons and naval battles with the Dutch, 1644-47 period

1648A Friar Domingo Navarrete’s description of his voyage

1648B Letter from Governor Fajardo, dated Manila 31 July 1649

1649A Letter from Governor Fajardo to the King, dated Manila 4 August 1650

1655A The voyage of the San Francisco in 1655

1659A A short biography of Fr. Sanvitores, by Fr. Juan Ledesma

1659B Letter from Fr. Sanvitores to the Fr. General of the Jesuits asking him to be sent to the Indies

1659C Letter from Fr. General to Fr. Provincial, dated Rome 12 October 1659

1659D Letter from Fr. General to Fr. Sanvitores, dated Rome 8 May 1660

1660A Letter from Fr. Sanvitores to a Father Domingo, dated Mexico 21 August 1660

1660B Two letters that Fr. Sanvitores sent to his father from Mexico in 1660

1660C The mission band led by Fr. Sola, of which Fr. Sanvitores was a member

1662A The galleon route from Acapulco to Manila, by Fray Letona

1662B Note on the patache San Damìan that took Fr. Sanvitores to Manila

1663A Letter from Viceroy to the King, dated Mexico 20 May 1663

1663B Letter from Fr. Sanvitores to his father, dated [Taytay]18July 1663

1663C Fr. Sanvitores applies for permission to open a mission in the Ladrones Islands

1663D Letter from Fr. Sanvitores to Fr. General, dated Taytay 22July 1663

1663E Letter from Fr. Sanvitores to Fr. Juan Gabriel Guillen, dated Taytay 22 July 1663

1664A Letters from Governor Salcedo regarding his voyage from Acapulco to the Philippines in 1663

1664B The King accepts that some foreigners may join Spanish missions

1664C Letter from Fr. General Oliva to German Jesuits, dated Rome 29 November 1664

1664D The 1664 paper discovery of the Caroline Islands by Fr. Francisco Miedes, S.J.

1665A Certification by Admiral Esteban Ramos about the Ladrone Islands, dated Manila 21 May 1665

1665B Report by the Archbishop of Manila, dated 20 June 1665

1665C Proposal by Fr. Sanvitores for a mission to the Ladrone Islands, dated May-June 1665

1665D Royal decree of 24 June 1665 authorizing Fr. Sanvitores to open a new mission

—Names of the Jesuit Provincials in Manila, 1665-1715

1665E Letter from Fr. Sanvitores to Fr. Provincial, 15 June 1665

1666A Letter from Fr. Luis Medina to Fr. Cristobal Perez, dated Montilla 27 April 1666

1666B Report of Fr. Sanvitores’ mission to Mindoro Island

1667A Letter from Fr. Sanvitores to Fr. Salgado, dated Manila 27 April 1667

1667B Letters from Governor Salcedo, dated Manila 4 August 1667

1667C Letter from the Bishop of Cebu to Fr. Sanvitores, dated Cebu 24 May 1667

1667D The story of the statue of Our Lady of Conception which Fr. Sanvitores took to Guam

1667E Report by Fr. Luis Pimentel about the Ladrones, dated Seville 8 November 1667

1667F Report by Fr. Polanco, O.P., about the Ladrones, dated Madrid 17 December 1667

1667G Report by former Governor Manrique de Lara about the Ladrones, dated Alhaurín 20 December 1667

1667H Fr. Sanvitores sends a Memorial to the Queen

16671 The mission band led by Fr. Pimentel

1668A Letter from Fr. Sanvitores to the Viceroy of Mexico, dated off Salagua (near Acapulco) 3 January 1668

1668B Letter from Admiral Muñoz to the Viceroy, dated Acapulco 11 January 1668

1668C Council meeting held in Mexico in January 1668 to consider the despatch of the San Diego

1668D Memorial presented by Fr. Sanvitores on 12 February 1668

1668E Book printed by the Sodality of St. Francis Xavier of Mexico

1668F Requirements of the mission to the Marianas, dictated by Fr. Sanvitores

1668G Letter from Fr. Sanvitores to the Pope, dated Acapulco 20 March 1668

1668H Letters from Fr. Sanvitores to the Queen, February & March

16681 Fr. Sanvitores’ Mariano grammar and catechism

1668J First letters written by the missionaries upon their arrival at

Guam in 1668

—Letter from Fr. Sanvitores to Sodality of St. F.X.

—Letter from Br. Francisco Palazuelos

—First letter from Fr. Casanova to Fr. Guillen

—Letter from Fr. Sanvitores to Fr. Provincial

—Letter from Fr. Sanvitores to Governor Salcedo

—Second letter from Fr. Casanova to Fr. Guillen

1668K Report on the Mariana Mission and a drift voyage from Palau, by Brother Marcelo Ansaldo

1668L Secondary accounts of the Palauan canoe that drifted to the Philippines in 1668

1668M Eyewitness account by Admiral Antonio Nieto of the arrival of the missionaries at Guam in 1668

1668N Account by then-Brother Bustillo, made in 1691

1668O Letter from the Queen Regent to Governor de Leon, dated Madrid 30 March 1669

1669A Jesuit annual reports for 1668-1669

1669B Letters from the Mariana Island missionaries to the Queen, dated Agadfia April 1669

1669C Account of a visit to the Marianas in 1669, attributed to Fr. Pimentel

1669D Letter from Fr. Provincial Solana to Fr. Procurator Bermudo dated Manila July 1669

1669E Letters from Governor de Leon to the Queen in 1670

1669F Royal decree of 13 July 1669

1669G Cryptic letter from Fr. Sanvitores to Fr. Medina, dated Rota 26 December 1669

1669H Letter from Fr. Sanvitores to Fr. Casanova, 28 Dec. 1669

1670A Letter from Fr. Sanvitores to Fr. Morales, Tinian 22 Feb. 1670

1670B Reports on the death of Fr. Luis de Medina

1670C 1669 & 1670 reports on the Propagation of the Faith in the Marianas

1670D First biography of Fr. Medina, edited by Fr. Francisco Garcia

1670E Early descriptions of Mariana Islands by Jesuit missionaries


Publication Details

Lévesque Rodrigue. History of Micronesia : A Collection of Source Documents. Vol. 4 Religious Conquest: 1638-1670,. Gatineau Québec: Lévesque Publications; 1995.

ISBN-10: 0920201040

ISBN-13: 978-0920201046

LCC: DU500 .H58 2000